


Do I Wanna Know?

by solarismagnum



Series: Readamancy [1]
Category: Arrow (TV 2012), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst and Humor, Canon-Typical Violence, Canonical Character Death, Did I Mention Angst?, F/M, M/M, Soulmate-Identifying Marks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-30
Updated: 2015-10-20
Packaged: 2018-03-20 08:35:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 19,573
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3643716
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/solarismagnum/pseuds/solarismagnum
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rumor has it that the first words your soulmate says to you are written on your wrist. That doesn't mean having a soulmate has to make sense. </p><p>Barry and Oliver meet and try to make sense of things.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Title comes from the Arctic Monkeys song of the same name, which may well be the theme for this entire series.

"And do your parents know you're here?"

It had been on his wrist as long as he can remember. When he got antsy about it as a kid, his mother would just shake her head and smile. "Wherever you are, Barry, all we want is for you to be happy."

And that? Was the problem.

Barry Allen made it a point to go looking for the impossible, the unbelievable, and the strange. There was a legend that the words were the first thing the most important person in your life would say to you. Some people claimed to have found their soulmates; others thought the words were an annoying decoration, and still more thought they meant nothing at all. Barry, as much as he didn't want to admit it, tended towards the latter camp. Given his curiosity and youth, plenty of people asked him if his parents knew where he was (if only they knew). Not a single one of them seemed like someone he wanted to spend the rest of his life with.

But even if he didn't put much stock in it, that didn't stop him from looking.

***

"Actually, it was just one guy." 

The words appeared on his wrist one day when he was little. His parents didn't like to talk about it (which meant it was totally true), but Thea loved to help him come up with theories. Oliver's favorites included the badass who tried to shrug off how many angry partygoers they'd defeated or the person who, unlike him and his philandering ways, had pretty much saved themselves for him. It was kind of romantic, the more he thought about it.

But as he grew older, he learned to like his words less. It definitely wasn't the first thing Laurel said to him, or even Sara. On Lian Yu, he wondered if the person who said those words was the next nutjob he'd have to learn from. In Hong Kong, those words could mean more leverage for Amanda Waller. And when he finally returned home? Whoever that person was, Oliver Queen wasn't going to be ready for them anymore. He was too broken, and Starling City needed far more fixing than he deserved.

***

Life as the Arrow taught Oliver to hate surprises. The wisp of a boy that wanders into Queen Consolidated is almost as much of a surprise as the one man robbery that took place the night before. The double whammy is enough to stun him, and when the boy suggests that Oliver doesn't know how hard it is to break someone's neck, there's a bolt of terror that the boy - Barry - might know.

"Hmm? No. No idea," is about as far away from level-headed and collected as Oliver wants to sound right now.

He needs to know about Barry Allen - everything he can find on his own while Felicity steals him away (that too ties knots in his stomach, none of which he dares untangle). Diggle is helpful and patient as always, and Oliver wonders if he'll ever have the nerve to tell Diggle why he _really_ wants this information.

Finding information about him is surprisingly easy. Stories about Nora Allen's murder are all over the internet, and from there Barry's history is easy to put together. Felicity Smoak he is not, but Oliver can do _some_ hacking. The captain in Central City is confused and angry about his call, and Oliver isn't sure he's ready to care yet.

The confrontation changes that. All of that awkwardness and charm comes to Barry in earnest, as does his determination to do the right thing. Oliver was born and bred in dishonesty, even before the island wrapped its talons around him. It's a wonder to see lies flipped into such honesty. Oliver knows about the murder and why Barry did what he did, but hearing that truth is different. It's sincere and raw in a way Oliver can no longer be, and as soon as Barry starts talking, Oliver regrets ever saying anything. He doesn't know what Barry Allen is, but he's not that kind of threat.

***

It was easier to think of it as a business call. Barry was a currently working as a consultant for Queen Consolidated, and as CEO Oliver could invite anyone to the gala he was holding for his mother. It was a transaction, not a favor. It was a convenient time to apologize.

A convenient time to deliver the apology he owed, more specifically. Oliver refused to budge on his need to investigate any potential threats - he didn't become a vigilante by trusting everyone in his periphery - but Felicity (as always) had a point. Some people needed to have secrets, and Barry's wasn't a secret that should prove a threat to Queen Consolidated or the Arrow.

Still, the fact that he needed to apologize didn't make him any more eager to do so. It was easier to think of it as something he was doing for Felicity, since she and Barry had taken to each other easily. Her quirkiness had the occasional side effect of making things less weird, and the gala was going to need a lot of that. Maybe they'd even have a good time. Thinking of it like that was better than acknowledging that he was giving a potential soulmate an avenue back into his life.

Oliver grabbed the phone with his left hand and dialed Barry's number, keeping his right wrist out of his periphery. 

It doesn't take long for him to get an answer. "Hello?" Barry sounded a little out of breath.

"Barry, it's Oliver."

There's an awkward pause.

"... Oh! Uh, sorry. When I saw Queen Consolidated on my caller ID, I didn't think it was going to be you. Especially after... uh, whatever that was earlier."

Before Oliver could say anything, Barry hastily added, "I'm sorry about that! Really sorry that I lied to you. If you don't want me to come back, I understand, there's just a few more tests that need to-" 

Oliver could hear Barry scrambling to gather things together. He sighed and shook his head. "Relax. I'm calling because I owe you an apology."

He could hear Barry stop on the other side of the line. "Oh! Um..."

Oliver grimaced and was grateful no one was around to hear him, because he'd never been able to break the habit of hating to admit he was wrong about something. "When I realized that you had been lying, I assumed you were up to something. Your involvement in this case is more personal than that, and it's something I understand." It was something the Arrow would have approached with his typical amount of subtlety and discretion, and Oliver couldn't help but appreciate that Barry's approach to vengeance was significantly less... violent.

The relief in Barry's voice was palpable. "I can't tell you how glad I am to hear that. You won't tell anyone, right?"

"It's not my secret to share."

"Thank you." Oliver could hear Barry smiling over the phone. He wondered if that was what sunshine sounded like. "If there's anything I can do for you-"

Oliver smiled. "Actually, I wanted to ask you... The gala I'm holding this evening for my mother - would you be able to make it?"

"Yeah! I think so. There should be a place around here that I can rent a suit, right? And then get a ride to-"

Barry's sad saga about traveling to Starling City suddenly came to mind, and Oliver decided to make a change of plans. "I'll arrange for the suit and my driver, Mr. Diggle, will get you," he said, carefully hiding his exasperation.

"And then I'll meet you...?" He can hear a tick of nervousness in Barry's voice, something altogether different from the awkwardness he'd heard before.

It's better to shut that down sooner than later. "Felicity still needs a plus one."

"...Right." Oliver pretended like he didn't hear a hint of disappointment.  


***

There was hardly anything in his suitcase that came close to formal wear, much less "formal party at a billionaire's mansion at his personal request" wear. He had a good pair of shoes that he'd saved in case he had to meet with someone important (like _Oliver Queen_ ) but everything else was his usual work clothing fare of things he didn't mind getting dirty. Dead people gunk was just a hazard of doing his job.

One of his nicer shirts would have to do. With a little ironing it could look kinda nice, maybe nice enough to work under a suit jacket. Stripped down to his undershirt and slacks, Barry went to the closet of his hotel room to grab the iron. He was interrupted by a curt knock.

Barry looked through the peephole, seeing Mr. Diggle outside, and realized that he was already late. 

"Uh, hold on a moment! I just need to throw something on!" Barry grabbed the shirt, iron abandoned, and threw on the only things he had found that looked decent.

Diggle was standing at the door, looking stonefaced and unimpressed. Barry felt really awkward, like he'd cemented Diggle's disapproval. Diggle seemed like the kind of guy you didn't want to disappoint.

"Sorry about the... well, everything," Barry said with a sheepish smile. "Oliver said you were going to help me get a suit?" 

Diggle stepped aside to let Barry out. "You're going to get fitted for one, and it should take long enough to tailor it for you to make a late entrance to the party."

Late again, even for Felicity and Oliver. Barry winced and rubbed his head. "How late, exactly?"

"Fashionably."

Mr. Diggle was awesome.

***

The ride from the hotel was a little long, mostly because Barry had booked a room closer to the crime scene and not the high fashion borough of Starling City, but Diggle drove pretty fast.

Barry couldn't help but fidget. He checked his phone, texting Iris to let her know that he was doing okay in Starling and texting Joe to let him know Captain Singh was probably going to be pissed. Nothing interesting came up in his emails - the most unusual situation right now was definitely in Starling. He was about pick a game on his phone when Diggle finally said something.

"So what kind of unusual stuff do you look into? The chupacabra, urban legends, stuff like that?" he asked, glancing at Barry in the rear view mirror.

Barry fidgeted a little, turning his wrist so the words weren't visible. "Well, the chupacabra is pretty fascinating, but I try to stick to things that can be scientifically proven. Like that guy at the warehouse - at a company as big as Queen Consolidated, there was going to be footage of that. And with all the evidence we found, that guy is going to be tracked down and arrested by the police. Statistically, there have to be outliers like that. Like the guy that robbed Queen Consolidated and the thing that killed my mom. Those are the things I look into."

Diggle nodded thoughtfully and Barry relaxed a little. He still kept his wrist close to his chest. 

"So urban legends and that sort of thing don't interest you?"

"Not all of them. The Starling City vigilante, now _that's_ the kind of thing I'd want to look into, because he's gotta be out of the ordinary. I could probably bore you with all kinds of theories about him. The work he does is really interesting. I think Felicity found it kind of annoying, though."

Diggle's expression was neutral. "Bore away."

***

Barry hadn't been fitted for a suit since he'd gone to prom. Renting a tux wasn't like getting one tailored. Not much could be done in the few hours they had, but the tailor was some sort of sewing genius. The suit fit well and the fabric was more lush than anything Barry had ever owned. He was pretty sure that the suit cost more than he made in a month, possibly two, but Diggle mentioned blandly that Oliver was paying for it.

It actually kind of made things worse. Barry was already nervous as hell - the people he knew in Starling City were pretty much limited to Oliver, Felicity, and Diggle - but he had no idea how to react to a somewhere-in-the-thousand-dollars-range suit and an apology. Was that an apology, or was that something Oliver just did for the hell of it? Did he have a slew of ex-girlfriends or one night-or-so stands that had gorgeous haute couture?

Did Barry even fit in that category? Was this actually going to be his life? Was Oliver even the one?

Everyone knew Oliver Queen was a playboy. He could have anyone he wanted, from the hottest supermodel to the most eccentric genius he could find. Barry thought he had some qualities that might make him a keeper. He was friendly, smart, quirky, and funny among other things, but Felicity had those bases covered already - probably without the perpetual tardiness and the relentless need to prove a parent’s innocence. Oliver had to be blind not to notice her. Being a girl was probably also a plus in Oliver's book.

But Felicity was Barry's plus one tonight - well, the other way around. Focusing on her would keep him from thinking all this stupid stuff about Oliver. 

As the tailor was finishing up, Barry grabbed the most boring cufflinks he could find. Not that cufflinks were particularly interesting, but he definitely wouldn't get any questions about his wrists that way. Or so he hoped.

***

Barry didn't know what he was expecting from Oliver's party. Felicity was probably the easiest person in the world to to talk to, aside from Joe, and Barry felt like something could happen there. Something preferable to pining over Iris and whatever the hell was going on with Oliver.

Things had been a lot smoother between them since the phone call, but Oliver's anger over Barry's lies still stung. Ever since they'd met in the warehouse, Barry had felt off. Oliver was a jerk, sure, but he wasn't the same kind of chiding adult that usually asked him if his parents knew where he was.

If the legend was true, it didn't make much sense. There was nothing about Barry that screamed "most important person for an asshole billionaire" so far as he could tell, aside from the words on his wrist. He'd tried to get a look at Oliver's, but of course he'd been wearing some fancy watch on that wrist. Probably an honest-to-God Rolex.

Barry looked at his phone. He had Felicity's number, but he figured she was tired after a long night at the Queen mansion. The number Oliver had used to call him was still in his phone. There wasn't a chance in hell that _he'd_ be there, but notion of calling him once he was back in Central City was tempting. Maybe after the Particle Accelerator had been activated, they could try and sort things out. Barry had plenty of time to weigh his options while he waited for the next day's train.

At least until the dart hit.

***

Tranquilizers sucked. It was one thing to accidentally mishandle a sample at the lab but something totally different to be shot with one on purpose. Joe told him once that Starling City was getting more dangerous by the day. Barry couldn't argue with that anymore.

As he came to, the world started to focus again. He could hear the dull hum of computers in the background. The room smelled like it had been sterilized recently. Was this where the centrifuge was?

A blur approached him, one that soon sharpened into Felicity Smoak. She looked desperate and so earnestly apologetic that Barry couldn't help but feel bad, regardless of the fact that he'd been tranquilized.

"I'm sorry. So sorry." She paused and stood aside. "Please save my friend."

Behind her in horrifying clarity was Diggle, standing over a body on a table. The green clad figure - the Starling City vigilante - on the table was lifeless. It was Oliver Queen.

Everything made an awful amount of sense, except for where it made no sense at all.

Barry immediately jumped into finding a diagnosis. He could feel his mind dragging as it reached for connections, addled by the tranquilizer, but he pushed onward. Diggle and Felicity were uncannily adept at trying to keep someone alive. Oliver was one hell of a distraction though, what with his scarred chest and all those muscles finely honed for stealth and combat. Muscles that would be more dead weight in a cold body if Barry didn't get his shit together.

But he did. With the cardiac arrest and all the seizing going on, it was easier to narrow down what was affecting Oliver - blood coagulation. And the cure was common enough to be lying in the foundry already, though Barry really wished he had a different form to use. He administered the cure himself and after he withdrew the needle Oliver's arm fell limply off the table. (It was the other arm, and Barry wasn’t sure why that happened.) Barry picked it up, not wanting Oliver to wake up with a hell of a shoulder cramp on top of all the side-effects that came from the litany of awful things that had happened to him that night. It was his right arm. Barry couldn't help taking a look at his wrist. 

"Actually, it was just one guy."

***

If the legends were correct, then true love was saving your soulmate's life with rat poison and having them nearly strangle you to death when they came to.

The Arrow's identity made far more sense given that he was still fully capable of murder despite being barely conscious. The fact that he hadn't made a kill in quite some time did nothing to soothe the lingering tightness in Barry's throat. 

Felicity, as it turned out, was some of Oliver-smiting sage of kindness and computer hacking. She and Diggle managed to calm the situation down as much as possible. Barry could kinda see why Oliver was mad - it had to be hard holding down a secret identity with so much at stake. There was also the incredibly strong chance that he was tripping balls at the moment. Maybe he was the kind of person who got angry when high.

Barry felt a little bad about it (and _really_ bad about the fact Oliver's mother had apparently shot him at some point), but he was still a cop. Assistant cop. Trying to solve the mystery of his mother's murder was the major reason he'd gone into crime-solving, but it wasn't the only one. He still wanted to help people, and he'd saved a life tonight. Even if Oliver was angry, he could understand that. Helping people was what the Arrow did.

It wasn't like the words had to mean anything. They matched up, but did that set anything in stone? Fate was something someone could decide for themselves. Barry was going to do just that.

***

He kept busy in the foundry, working on blood samples and the mystery of the Arrow's attacker. Oliver stormed out, but even though Diggle had gone out with a first aid kit at one point he seemed relatively uninjured when he returned. He was a bit twitchy about the warfarin, but that was to be expected. 

"Are you sweating excessively?" Barry asked, because it seemed better than asking if Oliver was hallucinating. Except for the image of a sweaty Oliver Queen that came to mind, which was just horribly inappropriate considering the only time he'd seen Oliver shirtless was when he was unconscious and half dead a few hours ago.

Maybe Barry was the one hallucinating. Hallucinating Oliver's hotness which was actually real and hidden under clothes and a stare that was nearly as lethal as his arrows.

"Let me take a blood sample," Barry said. "I can see if it's still in your system."

This time Oliver followed and to Barry's surprise, offered his right arm for a blood sample. It made sense, since his right hand was dominant and therefore would recover faster from the blood withdrawal due to movement. But the words were right there, his words in his handwriting, offered without hesitation. It made Barry's heart ache a little.

But the blood sample came first, and with it Oliver's health. Once it was set up to be tested, Barry offered his wrist to Oliver.

"We need to talk."

They went out into the alleyway behind the club, away from Felicity, Diggle, and all manner of weapons. That was a little comforting. 

Oliver was less so. "What do you want from me?" he asked. Barry was pretty sure this was what his interrogations sounded like.

But this was a matter of equality. Barry wasn't a criminal and he wasn't about to be cowed by something he wasn't sure he believed in. "I don't _want_ anything. Two days ago these words were just a tattoo inked by a needle in a haystack," he said, shoving his right wrist forward. "And since you opened your big mouth I've been wondering what someone like _me_ could ever mean to someone like you. You could have everything." Barry shrugged. "Maybe you already do."

Oliver continued to watch him. His eyes widened at Barry's bluntness and he shifted, as if reassessing the situation. He remained silent and thoughtful, so Barry continued.

"If the legends are true then I'm supposed to be the most important person in your life. Maybe it's just because I was meant to save you from dying. Maybe this case will help free my dad. I don't know."

"I can't let you go public with this. Not yet," Oliver replied. 

Barry sighed. Typical.

Oliver stepped closer. "Two days isn't enough to make a decision. Not on something like this. You have your life in Central City and I have my mission here. Besides, this isn't a good time to try and sort this out." 

Oliver looked away and something gave him pause. By the time Barry had a chance to look in that direction, nothing was there and Oliver had righted himself. "You saved my life, and I am grateful for that. But I'm not going to bind you to something you don't believe in."

Barry looked at the ground, bashful. "What if I wanted to? There's very little concrete data about soulmates." He cracked a little bit of a smile.

Oliver put a hand on his shoulder. "We have time. Time to go about our lives, to keep in touch and find out what we do mean to each other."

"I think that's the most reasonable thing you've said this entire time," Barry said, chuckling. "But I'd like that."

***

They parted on much better terms. Barry gave Oliver an incredibly useful gift and Oliver had smoothed things over at Barry's precinct. It was a beginning. The beginning of something that could be good, which had been an increasing rarity in Oliver's life.

The mask was a catalyst. Oliver was pretty sure it was handmade, given the careful attention to detail and the fabric scraps hidden away in a drawer. It fit his face perfectly and once Oliver got used to it, he barely felt it at all.

More importantly, it felt like the kind of thing Barry would do. Barry Allen, who was late to everything and wore his heart on his sleeve, giving his best to anyone who needed it. His was an unbroken kindness - battered by his family's tragedy but all the stronger for it.

Oliver had no idea how someone like that was supposed to fit into his life. Barry was already in on Oliver's biggest secret but that didn't mean he needed to be in Starling City, neck deep in the darkness that yearned to destroy it. He worked with dead bodies and crime scenes, but that didn't mean he needed to be there as they were in progress. And he definitely didn't need to be looking further into the potential spread of Mirakuru. Barry had enough ghosts in his life.

There was a time where Oliver never would have wished that his most important person, possibly his soulmate, was ambivalent when it came to the words. In his youth he'd been so excited about it, like he'd be the person to prove soulmates were real and then he'd be _extra_ special. Beyond that whole ‘heir to a billion dollar empire’ thing.

How naive he had been.

It was so different now that his person had a face and a name. Barry was a living, breathing, _real_ person, and even that Oliver had almost screwed up out of habit. Really, it was a miracle Barry had agreed to keep contact with him at all. How could Oliver ever deserve someone like him?

Then Felicity got word that Barry was in a coma, and it didn't seem like any of it mattered anymore.


	2. Chapter 1.5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Sounds like you want to date him."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is technically part of chapter 1, as I couldn't seem to fit this scene in to that draft. I still wanted to include it.
> 
> You may have noticed the number of chapters changed. What was originally supposed to be chapter 2 (and the end of this part of the series) has expanded quite a bit! It shouldn't be too long before the next two chapters are out.

Being in the Arrow Cave - not his term - is pretty intense. Oliver is out being Oliver instead of the Arrow, but Diggle has to bring out the first aid kit anyway. He won't accept Barry's help, since it has to do with a family friend and not official Arrow business. That'd be kind of awkward anyway, but Dig's expression is so serious that Barry can't help but try to do something.

Instead, he and Felicity get to hang out and watch for any sign of Cyrus Gold. Felicity gives him the grand tour of things in the foundry that aren't related to rat poison or somebody being on the edge of death. It's actually pretty cool.

The thing is, Barry likes Felicity. _Really_ likes Felicity. Iris is easily Barry's favorite person in the world and Barry is certain that he'll love her until the end of time, but with Felicity he can be himself. It's no secret that Barry is a big old nerd, but it's surprising to hang out with someone who can roll with that so easily. She has her awkward moments but so does he, but he doesn't feel quite so bad when he's around her. The mutual awkwardness tends to cancel itself out, leaving something for them to both laugh about.

There's just one sticking point, and that's Oliver Queen. Barry can see how well she likes Oliver, though Oliver didn't seem to notice or acknowledge it (unless being less of a douchebag counts). Barry's not about to bring up the words on his wrist, because Felicity was there and she might figure it out. He doesn't want to encroach on that if she wants to keep pining. He can respect that.

Either way, he doesn't want to talk about it, so he starts messing around with Oliver's collection of green dyes. There's a whole set of drawers dedicated to the repair and maintenance of the vigilante's titular hood. Barry finds it kind of funny, because he finds it hard to imagine Oliver taking time out of being a super macho badass for meticulous hand sewing. But if the supplies and Felicity are to be believed, that actually happens.

It does give Barry an idea. He borrows Felicity's car for a quick drive out and picks up a few different kinds of compressed microfiber. While Felicity is searching for Gold, Barry works to create a green dye with retroreflective qualities. He wants to make Oliver a proper mask, and if he mixes his chemicals right then that mask will reflect light back if someone ever tries to catch him with flash photography. 

He sets a few beakers full of dye aside to mix, and by then Felicity has hit a stopping point of her own. "What are you doing?"

"Oh, just messing around with something," Barry replies. He turns to face her full on. 

All he can do right now is let the burners do their thing, so it's a perfect time to chat and maybe ask her about things. Romantic things, like the lonely life of pining after someone who doesn't reciprocate your feelings. He's not that much of an asshole so he offers suggestions of why Oliver is worth liking instead of dissing him, only Barry puts his whole foot in his mouth. Maybe both of them.

"Sounds like you want to date him," Felicity says, and Barry wants to die a little. Years of awkwardness help him save the conversation (even though Felicity doesn't give him a solid yes or no).

On the train ride home, he can't help but wonder if that's true. He definitely wants to date Felicity, but he wouldn't give an outright no to dating Oliver. He’s seen the worst of Oliver’s personality, but he’s also seen how charming Oliver can be when he wants to. Hosting a gala is no easy task and Barry would never want to do it himself, but Oliver can. Plus, a truly awful person doesn’t put their life on the line to stop bad guys for the benefit of innocent people. Oliver is bad at saying thank you and being nice, but there isn’t a doubt in Barry’s mind that Oliver is a good person. He’s just a really complicated good person.

How bad could dating him be, really?


	3. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oliver deals with bad situations as well as he ever does. Eventually, Barry wakes up. Angst abounds.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to everyone that's helped me get through this chapter! It got a little out of control for a while, but the fic is still growing strong. I'd also like to send a shout out to everyone who has put up with my constant barrage of Barry/Oliver feels because of this fic. 
> 
> Enjoy!

Oliver can't stop Felicity from taking a trip out to visit Barry at the hospital in spite of his best efforts. He won't admit to anyone that he's worried about the kid too, because admitting that will lead to Oliver's least favorite question. Why?

It's healthy to have a sense of curiosity and a desire to learn, but Oliver has been burnt so many times with the truth. Why did his father decide on a boat trip right then? Why had his parents ever trusted Malcolm Merlyn to begin with? Why couldn't Mirakuru (and Slade) have stayed buried on that godforsaken island? Oliver has a lot of answers and so few of them are good. He doesn't want to know why his (potential) soulmate got struck by lightning and sent into a coma minutes after getting off the phone with one of Oliver's most trusted friends. If the myths about soulmates are true and he is bonded with Barry by some force beyond the control of mankind, then there sure as hell should be a reason why Barry was struck by lightning. Oliver doesn't want to know what that is; little good can come of it.

All the same, Oliver keeps an eye out for when Felicity hacks the hospital. He's grateful that she does it without him having to ask.

One day, she's staring at the screen with deep concern. She looks like she's about to cry. Not even a round on the salmon ladder can distract her, and that doesn't bode well at all.

He strides up to her like he would any other day, sweaty and not as oblivious as he seems. "What's going on, Felicity?"

"The board of doctors are at an impasse about what to do with Barry. The hospital loses power every time he goes into cardiac arrest and they're no closer to finding a way to get him out of that coma." She tabbed through a few different emails. "STAR Labs has extended an offer to take him in and put their best scientists on it, but after the particle accelerator incident, the doctors won't listen."

"I didn't think STAR Labs had anyone left after the accident," Oliver replied.

"A few have stayed. Harrison Wells is determined to soldier on, but the doctors think that handing Barry over to him is basically a death sentence." She was definitely crying now.

Oliver leaned over her shoulder and looked at some of the emails she had pulled up. 

> " _With all the recent electrical problems, it's a matter of whether Allen is going to die here or die there. His heart can't take much more resuscitation._ "
> 
> " _I'm hesitant to tell the family about the STAR Labs offer. It's unethical to put the safety of a comatose patient in the hands of a mad scientist. He's a human, not a lab rat._ "
> 
> " _The family doesn't know. They might take Wells up on it._ "

The emails went on like that, with varying levels of cynicism about STAR Labs, Wells, and whether Barry even had a possibility of recovery. It made Oliver want to go back and check the list in case he'd missed one of the doctors a year ago.

Anger wasn't going to get him anywhere. Anger wouldn't help Barry.

"Felicity," he said, looking at her like the Arrow on a mission. "You followed the incident at STAR Labs - what do you think?"

She looked up at him, incredulous. "Me? That kind of physics might be a _little_ bit out of my depth."

"You know enough and you understand it better than I do. Do you think STAR Labs can pull Barry out of that coma?"

Felicity paused, looking back and forth as she thought it through. "The doctors have said they've done all they can, but Harrison Wells is one of the most brilliant scientists alive. The particle accelerator was one thing, but if anyone could figure out what was wrong with Barry, he could."

“Are you certain?” Oliver asked. He was going in blind. He doubted Barry’s family would be able to help them, but there was nothing they could do if they didn’t know all of the options.

After a moment, Felicity nodded. “STAR Labs and Harrison Wells have always aimed to be a beacon of hope for the future. They have to hope for Barry, too.”

That was all he needed to hear. “Find out which doctor has the authority to tell the family about the STAR Labs offer and make sure they have a night shift. I’m going to need the jet.”

“Don’t you think that’s a little obvious, taking the Queen Consolidated jet to Central City and making an appearance as the Arrow?” Felicity asked, but she was already typing away.

“Thea has a birthday coming up and Central City has a very exclusive fashion district,” Oliver said with a wink.

***

Oliver thought he did a pretty decent job of finding Thea a birthday present - thankfully one that wouldn’t get her arrested this year. Still, he was pretty distracted.

The green hood gave him some peace of mind. He was far from his own turf, but the Starling City vigilante had been gaining infamy over the past year or so. And if Dr. Adams wasn’t familiar with him, his bow and arrow gave him enough backup to put the fear of God into the man. Climbing into the window is child’s play.

He leaves the lights off. It’s past visitor hours and Oliver can see Barry well enough without it thanks to the array of machines he’s hooked up to. Even in the dim light there’s a shadow over Barry’s features, an emptiness where his vibrance has faded. There’s no smile, no cheeky one-liner, no randomly relevant scientific factoid to be found here. Oliver presses gloved fingers to Barry’s neck, but there’s hardly a heartbeat to be found. 

Oliver clicks his voice modulator off for a brief moment and leans close to Barry’s ear. “You’re going to prove these doctors wrong. You’re going to come out of this, but I need you to fight. I’ll do what I can.” He clicks the modulator back on before brushing Barry’s forehead with his fingers. Barry’s eyelids flutter, but he remains unconscious.

By then, Dr. Adams has come in to make his rounds. “Excuse me - you’re not allowed to be here!”

The Arrow steps away from the hospital bed and draws his bow. “ **Harold Adams, you have failed this patient!** ”

Dr. Adams drops his clipboard and freezes. “I… I’ve done nothing wrong! We’ve tried every test we can think of and nothing has come back positive. He’s a danger to the rest of our patients!”

“ **Not every test. Accept the offer to transfer him to STAR Labs, or his death will be on _your_ head.** ” 

The doctor gawked at him. “Did Harrison Wells hire you?”

“ **I work for myself and the people who are unable to protect themselves.** ” He pulled his bowstring tighter, ready to let loose an arrow. “ **Promise me you’ll send him to STAR Labs.** ”

“I promise! Please, just spare my life!”

One of the machines Barry was hooked up to roared to life, beeping like an angry siren. It was thanks to Oliver’s years of control that he kept from turning bodily towards his comatose friend. The lights outside the room flickered off.

“He’s going into cardiac arrest again! I need to help him.”

Oliver lowered his bow and took steps backward towards the window. He could hear footsteps outside as nurses came to see what was the matter. “ **You saw no one tonight. I was never here.** ” Dr. Adams nodded. Oliver fled out the window before anyone else could see him. It hurt him physically to leave.

***

Barry was soon transferred to STAR Labs under experimental care. Thanks to the time Felicity had already spent with the Wests, she was granted visitor access to check on Barry while he was there. She made fast friends with the two remaining scientists, Cisco and Caitlin, which made it all that much easier to find out all the latest details about his condition.

Oliver couldn’t go back. He couldn’t risk endangering Barry or his friends again, and this was far beyond his skill set. He just had to hope that Barry would be okay.

***

Roy is still getting used to being on the team, so Oliver takes point on what should be a straightforward interruption of a bank robbery. The robbers don't seem all that surprised when Team Arrow arrives, but they put up quite the fight. Luckily none of them have been infused with Mirakuru, so the battle is straightforward. The lot of them are rounded up, and as Oliver gives one last look around the bank there's a flash of light.

A man pockets a cell phone and takes off running. Oliver fires at his legs but the man is the lone Mirakuru holdout. The pain from being shot in the leg, isn't enough to stop him from bursting through the metal doors and making an escape.

"One got out, and he took a picture. Diggle, I need you to tail him. Felicity, can you hack his cell phone before he gets a chance to send it?"

"Already on it," Felicity replies in her chipper but busy tone, busily typing away. "I'm into his cell phone and pulling his pictures now. I can - huh."

Oliver stops on the street. "What is 'huh'?"

"I've got it, but you can't see your face," Felicity says, somewhat amused. "Your mask reflected the light and the result obscures most of your face. I mean, I'm still going to delete it, but if they were trying to get a clear shot of your face they've failed pretty badly. I'm guessing the dye is retroreflective."

"Barry." It must have been part of the mask's design in case something like this happened. Oliver is already a fan of the mask, but he wants to thank him even more now. Even in a coma, Barry Allen is still saving his life.

"Yeah," Felicity replies, and the humor has drained from her voice. She's still pretty worried about him. "Always on the ball, that one."

Diggle gives them a location on their photographer, but no one is feeling too chatty after that.

***

The night Barry ends up in one of Oliver's nightmares is when he resigns himself to stop thinking about it. Sara's alive, and apparently she had to tag out with someone in his nightmares, because Oliver doesn't know what he would do with himself if he wasn't hounded by the death and destruction that is constantly in his wake. 

He's being particularly aggressive with the training dummy the next day, his hands wrapped for punching, when Diggle finally says something.

"I know we can just replace it, but don't you think it'd be a little wasteful to break that thing?" he says, as cool and level-headed as ever. Oliver wants to hate him for it sometimes, but he can't.

"I'm being careful, Dig," Oliver snaps.

Diggle strolled over and Oliver turned to face him. "Would it help if I said I know what you were freaking out about?"

Oliver shook his head. "This isn't about the Mirakuru or Slade. I'm working on that."

"I know it isn't, Oliver. And I'm really not in the mood to watch you avoid talking about it for five years or however long Barry is in that coma."

Busted. Oliver soured and stiffened. "I don't know what you think-"

Diggle waved his hand. "Don't lie to me, Oliver. I've been working with you long enough to know what your wrist says, and I was there when someone said it."

"That doesn't prove anything." All those years of hell and Oliver still can't quite shake the whine of a spoiled rich kid when he doesn't get his way.

"Yeah? What about on the drive uptown, when Barry couldn't stop trying to hide his wrist? He definitely didn't want me to see it."

Oliver sighed. "And that's how you figured out what was on it. Why didn't you tell me?"

Diggle stared at him like he was an idiot. Yeah, he probably deserved that one.

Still, Oliver felt exposed. "Why is this so important to you?"

Diggle held out his right wrist. "Lyla said this to me the day that we met. Didn't take me long to figure out that she was the real deal."

Oliver frowned. "You and Lyla got a divorce."

"And now we're patching things up. There's no such thing as a perfect relationship-"

"There isn't any kind of relationship with someone who's _in a coma_. Felicity says he's basically a lab rat."

"Huh," Diggle said, raising his eyebrows. "So you do care. That's why Felicity keeps getting an okay for taking time off to visit Central City even though you get cranky every time she leaves. Does she know she's doing recon for you?"

"That is not her priority. She's checking in on a friend. With our Mirakuru problem, it's not a priority for me right now. We'll have that discussion when it's time." Oliver rubbed his forehead. Talking about his feelings was a special kind of fight.

"You mean _if_ there's a time?"

"Diggle, drop it."

Dig crossed his arms. "Fine. But I'm going to make sure that you don't."

***

It was easy to keep busy with the Mirakuru and Slade at the forefront of his mind. Sara was a great help, and their similar experiences made it easier for Oliver to forget, for a little while, just how broken he was. Felicity visited Central City and made new friends, Barry stayed in a coma, and things at home were strange. 

The last person he expected to have a conversation about soulmates with was his mother, after a business meeting gone horribly wrong. She was angry, sure, but he could see that the hurt ran deeper than that.

"Your father was madly in love with Isabel Rochev. He was ready to give up everything, including you and your sister. He had her words," Moira said somberly.

Oliver stared at her. He'd seen the words on his father's wrist when he'd buried him but he'd never thought to question them. The topic had always been taboo. "I didn't know..." He felt like he was going to vomit. He desperately wanted to shower, but not a single one in the manor could cleanse him of the guilt and disgust he felt right now.

Moira put a hand on his shoulder. "I'm so sorry that we never talked about it. Your father and I have words, but we didn't have each other's. We had decided not to put much stock in them because we were so in love with each other. But once he met her, everything changed. Suddenly it had to be real."

Oliver gave her a hug, which she seemed glad for. The hug wasn't just for her sake. "What about you?"

She pulled away from him, a wry smile on her face as she looked away. "I had the consideration to wait until after his death to look."

"Walter."

His mother nodded. "After all you had been through, that wasn't something I thought I could talk to you about. And for the first time in your life, you didn't seem interested anymore."

It hadn't been a priority when he first returned, but he'd been more interested in the concept than ever. But with Slade Wilson and his Mirakuru mob growing in strength and Barry in a coma for an indeterminate amount of time, Oliver didn't want to think about it anymore. "Mom... When we have less to worry about, we can talk about that."

"Of course." She said with a smile.

They never got the chance.

***

Getting rid of Slade didn't make it any easier. Sara rejoined the League of Assassins, Thea took off, things with Felicity got complicated, Sara was murdered, and John and Lyla had a baby - an adorable baby girl, full of love and the kind of relentless innocence Oliver hadn't seen in months. He couldn't help but be jealous that the two of them had made such life out of several incredibly deadly situations. Surrounded by death, Oliver had never thought himself that lucky.

He left the Diggle family to their joy and Felicity with another disaster of emotional recklessness. As it was, Oliver was in no condition for romance. She needed more from him than he could give her, and under no circumstances could he guarantee either of their safety even with Slade out of the way.

Maybe he'd been right when he first came back. Maybe he wasn't cut out for relationships anymore.

His phone rang with a number he didn't recognize. It was going to his personal phone and not the Arrow's number, so the city wasn't in any imminent danger. 

He answered it, hoping Thea had gotten a new phone. "Hello?"

"Hi, it's Barry. Barry Allen. I woke up."

***

Oliver didn't know what he was expecting as he made his way up to the roof. They'd worked out a location to meet at and Barry didn't seem all that worried about time. Oliver hoped he wasn't late for something. He had so many questions about what in the world Barry was doing in Starling City fresh out of a coma - Felicity had checked on him a few days ago and he had still been under, so Oliver knew this had been a recent development. How had STAR Labs let him go so quickly?

He wasn't expecting what he found at the top of the roof. Even in the dim light, Barry looked better than ever. He was slimmer, sure, but there was no sign of the kind of pallor that would've come with nine months of an IV diet. While there was still an air of uncertainty around him, Barry looked more confident in his posture. The gangly, awkward CSI apprentice had been replaced with someone a little more sure of himself; someone who would rather take the next step, than tiptoe around the inevitable. 

"I didn't interrupt anything important, did I?" Barry asked.

"Diggle and his, uh-" What the hell was Lyla? Dig's girlfriend? Partner? Ex-wife? Soulmate? Now really wasn't the time to bring that up. "His wife just had a baby. I was just leaving the hospital."

Barry beamed. "That's so great!

There was a lot about Barry that was very obviously different, but as soon as he started explaining himself, Oliver could tell that there was so much about him that was still the same.

Barry still wanted to do the right thing. He hadn't just found the impossible - he'd _become_ it. For someone who had just run 600 miles he was hardly out of breath, but that seemed to be the least unusual part of all this. Oliver was sure that there were all sorts of complicated scientific things about Barry's situation that STAR Labs wanted to suss out, but that was for them to figure out (and Felicity to hack, if need be). Superspeed and whatever had caused Barry to bounce back so well was just as unbelievable as Mirakuru. Oliver knew far too well how real Mirakuru was.

He couldn't help but warm at Barry's concerns. Oliver had fallen into vigilantism after years of bizarre circumstances, and it had often been more a crusade than anything. Barry was debating the choice to become a vigilante, not for vengeance or honor or as a way to right his past wrongs, but because it was the right thing to do. He'd been given a gift and his instinct was to use it to help people.

"I'm just not sure I'm like you, Oliver. I don't know if I can be some... vigilante," Barry says. 

He can't be like Oliver. He can't kill like Oliver did. He can't torture like Oliver still does, but he can fight. Barry has the strength to make a difference, and Oliver doesn't hesitate to say so. "You can be better. Because you can inspire people in a way I never could." And if there's a hint of fondness to his voice, Oliver doesn't particularly care.

It's what Barry needs to hear, regardless of what his scientist buddies are saying. If other people were affected by the particle accelerator like Barry was, there's not a whole lot the police of Central City can do. If there was any truth to the legend of soulmates, to the idea that the most important person in your life was bound to you by the words on your wrist, then this is why Oliver and Barry are tied together. Barry needs the push and no one knows this life better than the Arrow.

"Watching over your city like a guardian angel - saving people, making a difference," Oliver can't help but smile to himself, thinking about how Barry had made such a difference in his life with rat poison and a retroreflective mask. "... in a flash."

***

"Caitlin, can I ask you something?" Barry said.

He noticed the words on Caitlin's wrist on one of the first days after he'd started working with STAR Labs. She doesn't try to hide it, since Dr. Wells and Cisco probably know about them. It isn't until after the pipeline is established that Barry finally has the nerve to say something. He waited until neither Wells or Cisco were around.

"Sure, Barry," Caitlin replied, looking a little pleased to be asked something. "What is it?"

"I don't want to upset you or anything," Barry said, lowering his arms in an attempt to emphasize that. She raised her eyebrows with concern. "It's just... do you believe in soulmates?"

As soon as it left his mouth, Barry knew it was the wrong thing to say. Caitlin blinked rapidly and bit her lip. There was a long pause before she replied. 

"I did. Maybe I still do," she said. 

"I'm so sorry, Caitlin. Um, we don't have to talk about it if you don't want to. It's just... I saw that you had something on your wrist and I..." Barry held up his own wrist. "I don't have anyone else to talk to."

Caitlin offered a soft, if slightly awkward, smile. "I know what it says. Before the accident, I used to research the stories as a hobby."

"You had two subjects to work with back then, didn't you?" Barry asked bashfully.

She nodded. "I wanted to provide some concrete scientific data about it. With Ronnie it all seemed right, you know?" Her smile turned sad.

"I can't say I've had the same experience." Barry rubbed the back of his neck.

There was a hint of a spark in her eyes, even though the subject was mired in such tragedy. "Well, why don't you tell me about it? There aren't many experts on the subject of soulmates."

"Just promise not to tell anyone, okay?"

"You've met your soulmate?" Caitlin replied. And yeah, she was definitely excited about it now.

"We're still working things out. Me and..." Oh god, thinking of a nickname was awkward. He couldn't use Oliver's real name, not without revealing his secret identity among other things. Not Ollie, not Jonas, not Queen. "Me and Jack...ie. Jackie." It was close enough and easy to remember.

"Jackie? Is that a boy or a girl?"

"Let's just go with a 'them' for right now. We're still figuring it out. You're the only one who knows."

"I won't tell anyone. Promise."

***

For someone who had once been a poster child for rich young heirs with Sidekick phones, Oliver sure hates texting. Barry can't figure out why that is, but his best guess is that it might have something to do with phone calls involving a familiar voice on the other end. 

It sucks though, because Barry has gotten really good at texting fast. He still does text Oliver on occasion, late at night when the city is safe and he's left with his own thoughts. Oliver will call him back if he's not busy with something else, and usually when he probably should be sleeping.

The situation with Bette hits Barry pretty hard. He _knows_ she could've done good. He knows that with time, STAR Labs could've helped her deal with her powers. She would have been an incredible ally, but now she's merely dust in the water. 

Barry can't sleep and he doesn't feel like running around until he's too exhausted to stay awake. He fires off a text at Oliver. _What do you do when you can't save someone?_

It's not even a minute before "You Give Love a Bad Name" starts blaring on his phone, signaling that Oliver is giving him a call. That was fast.

"Uh, hey," Barry says, sitting up.

"What happened?" There's not-very-hidden concern in Oliver's voice.

"There was this metahuman, Bette. She used to be a soldier, but she was turned into a metahuman. She was a good person who cared about doing the right thing, but..." Barry's voice cracked. "She was hunted down because of her power. Because the shrapnel inside of her gave her the ability to make anything explode. I couldn't save her."

Oliver was quiet for a moment. "Barry..."

"I really don't want to hear that just because of her power there was nothing good she could do. I don't think that's true. She thought so, but she just needed time to see that."

"And you wanted to show her," Oliver replied.

Barry nodded. "Yeah. Anything's possible, right?" he added wryly.

"You see the best in everyone, Barry. And for some people, people like Bette, it's a lot harder to see that good in themselves. The hardest thing about doing what we do is that there are some people you can't save. Even with all the training, planning, and coordination with your allies, you're going to lose people. Some of them are going to be close to you." And yeah, there was no hiding the melancholy in Oliver's voice there.

"But you keep going. I mean, you had that break after the earthquake but you've been going strong ever since."

"Still keeping tabs, are you?" Oliver replied with a hint of amusement.

"I have the best sources. I mean, not that they are spilling your secrets or anything, but the news reports only say so much, you know?" He and Felicity texted regularly. Diggle was a lot quieter on that front, but he was great about giving updates on important matters.

"People still have a hard time believing you exist, aside from Iris West."

Barry could feel himself blushing. "Yeah, well..."

Oliver, fortunately, sensed the need for a change in subject. "I keep fighting because there are always going to be people to fight. There are always people who will need saving, even if I don't always succeed at it. My city needs me and Central City needs you. You can honor Bette's memory by doing what she would have done. What she believed you could do."

Barry was quiet as he tried to soak in the words. "Thanks, Oliver."

***

A few days after that, Barry offers to take Caitlin to Jitters for coffee. Totally platonic coffee for a not-so-secret discussion about soulmates. He wasn't sure if Iris was working that day, but there were plenty of places for them to sit out of her listening range - especially at a busy time like this.

She served them coffee anyway. Barry's was perfect, just the way he liked it, and the warmth gave him more confidence to ask Caitlin what he'd brought her out for.

"Would it be weird if we talked about your hobby right now?" He shrugged, trying and failing to sound totally casual about it.

"About soulmates?" Caitlin said.

Barry glanced around the room to make sure Iris wasn't nearby, then nodded. "I just have a question."

Caitlin glanced in the same direction and offered him a smile. "What's that?"

"I wondered if the whole soulmate thing could be platonic. I'm still talking with Jackie, _really_ talking sometimes, and I think I get why they're supposed to be important to me." He glanced back to Iris, who was working behind the counter. "Obviously I'm kinda preoccupied and I'm pretty sure Jackie isn't available but that's okay, right? We can be super involved without the whole romance thing. Maybe."

Caitlin stopped to think. "It's probably for the best that you don't develop a romantic element, because there's no telling what sort of effect your powers would have on that without running some tests first."

That was the last thing Barry wanted to have tested ever. Even though he knew Caitlin now, it was still more awkward than that first time she'd asked him to pee in a cup.

"Can we skip the test talk right now?" He was pretty sure he wanted to die. There were so many ways that could be weird.

Caitlin blinked. "Oh! Sure. The important thing is that there's nothing set in stone - at least that anyone has found and been able to verify - that says soulmates have to be romantically involved. There are some stories of pairs thought to be soulmates that were not romantically involved, so it is plausible."

"Okay, good."

Caitlin tilted her head. "Would you date Jackie if that was an option?"

Barry rubbed his forehead. "I don't know. Jackie is complicated, but Jackie is also definitely dateable."

"Then one of these days, you should probably introduce Jackie to your friends and family if you're going to incorporate them into your life."

"I know. The next time Jackie's here, we'll figure something out."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next time on Do I Wanna Know?: "Jackie" comes to town. ;)


	4. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Once upon a time, this fic was only going to be two chapters. I may have gotten a _little_ carried away with the reunion.
> 
> Can't say I feel all that bad about it, really.

Fighting a guy that makes people angry is a mess. The bank is just all kinds of awful, and worse yet is when the police confront Mr. Anger Inspiration. The Flash does manage to save the other officers from the bad end of a shotgun, but the night is saved when the Arrow makes a surprise entrance. And it's cool, since the officer in question only ends up with an arrow injury and not a gunshot wound.

"Nice mask," the Arrow offers as a goodbye, as if Barry isn't delighted to see him - wearing the mask Barry made him, no less. Felicity's told him Oliver wears it, but it's not like decent quality pictures of the Arrow actually exist. (Iris complains about this every once in a while, because at least the Flash has a trail of light.) It's just really _cool _that the Arrow took his advice and wears the mask _he_ made when he does hero stuff. __

__It's still cool despite the fact that Barry himself is now a superhero. Is this what it’s like to be Cisco?_ _

__A few minutes later, Barry gets a text from Felicity with an address on the edge of the city. There's still some cleanup to be done and by the time Barry feels comfortable leaving it to Joe, the trail has gone cold._ _

__It's a half an hour before Barry heads out of town, and he still manages to beat Oliver there. Man, he loves being fast._ _

__His ego deflates about as soon as Oliver starts talking. The Arrow is less than impressed with what he saw - reasoning be damned. Barry had plenty of time to find a way to shut down the rage situation safely, it's just that Oliver beat him to it. From the shadows, where he hadn't been noticed until that point. Easy._ _

__He turns his attention to the others - mostly Felicity, as Diggle seems to be caught off guard for the first time in his life. Seeing Diggle freaked out freaks Barry out a little, because Dig is one of the most cool-headed people Barry's ever met. All of them are in town to investigate a totally different bad guy, and the time is as ripe as it will ever be for a team up._ _

__Oliver says no, but Felicity is game to science it up at STAR Labs. Now _that_ could be fun._ _

__***_ _

__Felicity swears by Jitters as a coffeehouse, even moreso than her favorite Starbucks back in Starling City. With his fortune gone, Oliver doesn't feel that awkward stopping into a shop for coffee. He's not worth much of anything as far as the public is concerned, and to them the island rescue is a thing of the past._ _

__He realizes he is completely wrong when one of the waitresses behind the counter steps up to take their order. One of her coworkers who had been manning the register is surprised. Felicity smiles._ _

__"Hey Iris!"_ _

__"Felicity, it's so good to see you!" They exchange hugs as best they can over the counter. "And this is?"_ _

__The question is only a formality, because it's blatantly obvious that Iris knows who Oliver is. She looks like she wants to eat him for breakfast, pastry counter be damned._ _

__There was a time in Oliver's life where he would have run with that like the Flash, but that is beyond him now. The Flash is his friend/potential soulmate as well as Iris's best friend who has been pining for her for most of his life. She's Felicity's friend too (though apparently no longer a rival for Barry's affections), and Oliver's long reliable (and maybe a little rude) technique for letting girls down is not an option here. There's no easy escape strategy, which makes him incredibly uncomfortable._ _

__"This is Oliver Queen. Iris West, Oliver Queen." Felicity says, gesturing between them._ _

__Oliver extends a hand and an awkward smile. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Iris."_ _

__"The pleasure is mine, Mr. Queen," Iris replies, all genuine friendliness and charm. It's easy to see why someone like Barry would fall for her._ _

__Felicity glances at him with a look determined to remind him that she's a friend._ _

__"Please, call me Oliver." He's going to need a straight black coffee to deal with Central City. He hopes that Barry will show up to meet them once Iris is busy again. Oliver doesn't want to be in the middle of them any more than he already is._ _

__***_ _

__Barry can't help being late to the warehouse despite himself. Iris is texting him questions with every free moment she gets. He's got a lot of paperwork thanks to the bank robbery and the department is collectively shitting itself over a confirmed sighting of the Starling City vigilante in town._ _

__Oliver probably knew that would happen, given all that experience with shaking up bad guys. But having him as backup just felt _right_ , even if the Flash had temporarily bungled the whole thing. It's the kind of thing they could do all the time if they lived a little bit closer to each other. It would be so much fun. The world would be all that much safer under the protection of STAR Labs and Team Arrow, but the problem is that Oliver is an unrepentant asshole that has a hard time playing on a team. Especially if the arrows in the back are anything to go by._ _

__Oliver _shot him in the back_. Twice. And yeah, Barry probably should have seen the crossbows when he ran past them but he had made the (apparently wrong) assumption that Oliver wouldn't try to put pointy things in his back. Having the ability to heal didn't make it hurt any less and he actually liked that sweater. It's the opposite of great, awesome, cool or anything that Barry had previously thought a team up with the Arrow could be, because the Arrow is still a dick._ _

__This is a connection of legend? The bond between two people strengthened by rat poison, asphyxiation, and well-placed crossbows? Oliver is so bullheaded about tactics and preparedness, but Barry doesn't have the patience for that. Oliver schemes, Barry acts, and that's just they way they are. They're not compatible - they're just two strangers with little in common aside from the fact that they're superheroes._ _

__Not even that, if Joe and Wells were right. After all that’s happen, there’s a part of Barry that just might agree with them._ _

__As soon his team gets a lock on Bivolo, Barry rushes out on his own just to prove how little he actually needs Oliver Queen and the Arrow._ _

__It backfires._ _

__***_ _

__With Bivolo behind filtered superglass, both Team Arrow and Team Flash are wrapping up for the evening. Barry isn't sure Cisco will ever stop talking about how awesome the whole thing was. He didn't when they were checking Oliver's injuries, even as Caitlin kept giving him dirty looks. Felicity does her best to stay calm and Diggle does his best not to engage Cisco in another argument about who would _actually_ win in a fight. Wells is... somewhere. Barry isn't sure._ _

__Really, it's the x-rays that have his attention. Caitlin processes them as fast as she can, but it turns out that Oliver's body is such a clusterfuck of poorly healed injuries that he has to help them sort out the damage that Barry actually did during the fight. There are some hairline fractures, particularly in Oliver's right arm, but fortunately in his deluded anger Barry had spent most of the time toying with the Arrow rather than doing major damage. It's not reassuring._ _

__The weight of his actions hits Barry like ice water, and he whips out of the room without another word. Oliver was strong and seasoned, and angry!Barry had wanted to give him a taste of his own jerkish medicine._ _

__Eddie, on the other hand, had faced Barry's rage in full. Nothing at the police academy could have prepared him for an angry speedster, especially one with a vendetta. He could've killed Eddie easily. And if Oliver hadn't stopped him, he probably would have._ _

__Barry crossed his arms and slid down the wall. He was short of breath and wanted to throw up for the first time since becoming the Flash._ _

__He tried to focus on breathing. He didn't want to lose it right now - not here at STAR Labs, and not in front of Team Arrow._ _

__It was then that Dr. Wells wheeled into the room. Barry straightened up. "Everything alright, Barry?"_ _

__"It's just been a crazy day, that's all," he said glumly._ _

__Wells cocked his head. "Exhaustion and varying levels of trauma were present in the brains of everyone who came into contact with Bivolo's power. Given that you fought against it for so long, I doubt you are an exception." He smiled softly. "Get some rest, Barry. A good night's sleep will give your body a chance to push any after effects out of your system."_ _

__Barry nodded, but he wasn't exactly sure he was going to have an easy time sleeping tonight._ _

__Of course, Harrison Wells was quick on the uptake. "I would imagine that the best place to rest, if you're feeling uncertain, is somewhere that you feel safe." That said, he wheeled off towards where Caitlin and Cisco were wrapping things up._ _

__Soon after Oliver stormed out of the room alone. Clearly he had the same amount of tolerance for discussion about his medical state as he'd had when Barry was treating him. Barry could hear the conversation dying down behind him._ _

__"Seriously, designing a wrist brace that can help with your fractures while minimizing the impact on your mad archery skills is no big deal! You won't even notice!" Cisco was making an eager appeal in Oliver's direction._ _

__"How about you show me your ideas while Oliver goes and... rests." Felicity said, enthused by Cisco's idea but aware that Oliver was done with people for the evening. Barry was pretty sure by tomorrow morning, there would be a prototype and Oliver would wear it while Felicity smiled darkly at him. She was so good at getting Oliver to listen in spite of himself._ _

__The man in question had come to a standstill, as if trying to figure out his next move. It wasn't quite so easy for him to disappear in Central City like he did in Starling, but his friends knew to leave him alone just the same._ _

__Barry thought he'd at least try and change things up a bit. "So uh, I take it things didn't go well in there."_ _

__Oliver frowned. "My injuries aren't that serious. They're wasting their time."_ _

__Maybe that was the case in Arrowland, where Oliver Queen endured unimaginable things that forged him into a grumpy badass. Barry gave him a look. "I'm a forensic scientist by day, remember?"_ _

__Oliver scowled and pointed in Barry's direction, but the snappy retort did not come. Probably because Barry was right._ _

__Barry changed the subject before he could let himself be smug about that. "Anyway, uh..." Any confidence gained from their little tiff deflated like a popped balloon. "Look, um... Would it be..."_ _

__Now Oliver was staring at him with an unreadable expression (he was so good at those, damn him and his lack of social awkwardness). Barry rubbed the back of his neck. "What I mean is... where are you staying?"_ _

__Oliver blinked. That definitely wasn't a question he was expecting. "Are you okay?"_ _

__If it was possible (and anything was possible when you were something impossible), Barry was even more embarrassed. But the good thing about hitting rock bottom is that it couldn't get worse from there. Still, Barry couldn't look at him. "After everything that happened, I don't feel like I'm quite myself, you know? There was so much anger -"_ _

__"Enough." Oliver put a hand on Barry's shoulder, a comfort Barry hadn't realized he needed. It was something Joe was good at, but Barry didn't trust himself around Joe. Oliver could stop him. "I'm staying at the hotel on 1st and Main. 23rd floor."_ _

__That snapped Barry out of his moodiness. "Uh, didn't you lose your company while I was in a coma?" He was gawking. A little. It was among Central City's finest hotels._ _

__"I may have dropped out of four Ivy League schools, but I did learn about diversifying investments," Oliver replied with a wink. "The balcony door will be open. See you soon."_ _

__***_ _

__Diggle emerged from Nerdfest 2014 just as Oliver was about to leave. The man had an impeccable sense of timing._ _

__"Caitlin is going to drop Felicity off at the hotel later," Dig said. "They're working on something."_ _

__Oliver sighed. "A brace?"_ _

__"If you can decipher all that, be my guest." John gestured to the other room._ _

__Definitely the brace. This was going to be a thing, Oliver was sure of it. He couldn't stay in the city of love and lightning without getting _something_ fixed up._ _

__"Let's just go back to the hotel. No stops."_ _

__"Not even Big Belly Burger?"_ _

__"Not tonight."_ _

__Diggle looked at him with concern, but didn't press the issue. "Are you sure Barry's going to be alright after all of that?"_ _

__"We're handling it." Oliver replied. "Let's go."_ _

__***_ _

__It didn't take long after Oliver got settled in before Barry had zipped up the building. He seemed a little exasperated._ _

__"You know, you could've told me which side of the building you were on," he said, hands on his hips._ _

__Oliver cocked his head. "Just be glad I didn't set up the crossbows this time."_ _

__Barry groaned. "Seriously? You made that _training_?" _ _

__Oliver didn't move. He was sitting up straight on the couch, nursing what looked like a decent beer. "The enemy doesn't wait for when you're ready to deal with them."_ _

__"Oh my god, this is always going to be a thing." Barry threw his hands down incredulously and glanced at the balcony door before turning back to Oliver. "The _last_ thing I need right now is one of your crazy training sessions."_ _

__And over on the couch, Oliver was infuriatingly calm. "Are you angry?"_ _

__Barry gawked at him. "Of course I'm angry! I opened up to you! And you just -"_ _

__Oliver took another swig of his beer and stood up. "Are you as angry as you were before?"_ _

__"I... no, actually," Barry replied, blinking rapidly. "I mean, I really want to hate you for doing that but I don't want to lash out." He took a deep breath._ _

__After setting down his beer, Oliver took a few careful steps closer. "That's what I needed to know."_ _

__It was too much for Barry to deal with. He'd spent the better part of the past day fighting off induced anger that the feeling it organically caught him off guard. It was under his control, a feeling to wield or hide away under his usual lighthearted demeanor, but it shocked him all the same. Relief swept in behind the anger, but it did little to soothe the memories of before. Oliver was going to be okay now, but the x-rays were still a vibrant memory in Barry's mind. Though he acted like it, Oliver hadn't come out of that fight unscathed. And that was nothing compared to what happened to Eddie._ _

__Oh god, _Eddie_._ _

__Barry had never known himself to be that violent, even in his short stint as a superhero. He'd fed on that petty jealousy and the dark emotions that surrounded his affection for Iris, and Barry had used that to play with Eddie like he was a cheap toy. Barry had worked hard to keep his speeding under control to avoid hurting his friends - even traveling short distances at such high speeds could be dangerous for someone without his powers, and it would've been so simple to turn Eddie into a splatter on the pavement. And Barry remembered that feeling of triumph, of finally getting some vengeance, and how easy it had been to stop caring about that control. He could've killed Eddie. He could've hurt Iris. Or Joe, Felicity, Cisco, Caitlin, or Dr. Wells. He _had_ hurt Oliver._ _

__He crumbled under the weight of his guilt, but Oliver's reflexes were too fast to let Barry get anywhere near the floor. Oliver let out a small grunt as he caught him, but Barry was too upset to point that out. Barry rested against him, taking deep, heaving breaths as he fought off tears. It was too much to deal with. Oliver's arms wrapped around him in an honest-to-God hug._ _

__"It's okay to be upset. The kind of battles we fight aren't always easy and there is no way to come out of this unscathed. But Barry," he said softly, "Tomorrow your city is going to need you. They're going to need you to take up the mask again because they believe in you."_ _

__"I know." Barry nodded against Oliver's chest, not bothering to stop the tears from flowing any further._ _

__Oliver held him tighter. "You have tonight. Whatever you need to do so that you can be the Flash again tomorrow, you have tonight to get it done."_ _

__"... I don't want to be alone," Barry murmured, and he couldn't help but think about his mother as he said it. He'd never liked the dark, but she'd always told him he just didn't like being alone in the dark. Why would his own darkness be any different?_ _

__"You won't be," Oliver replied._ _

__They stood there like that for what seemed like ages. Barry cried it out on Oliver's shoulder. Oliver stood there and weathered it like the rock that he was. At one point Barry could've sworn that he felt Oliver's lips pressed to his hair, but he didn't want to bring it up and make things awkward._ _

__More awkward, anyway._ _

__But he'd needed this. The crying, the hugging, all of it. He didn't realize that the Arrow - that _Oliver_ \- could be so gentle and affectionate. That he could be so understanding about such a difficult subject. It was one thing to spend every night and day trying to fix a city but... did Oliver know how to fix people? If he knew how to fix people, how could he still be so messed up?_ _

__Oliver broke the silence. "I meant what I said before. I still believe in you, Barry."_ _

__Slowly, Barry finally lifted his head up. "Thanks. I'm still trying to get there," he said with a weak smile._ _

__"You'll get there." Oliver smiled right back, a genuine smile that made Barry want to grab his phone and take a picture so that such a rarity could be preserved. It made Barry smile more all the same._ _

__"Thank you, Oliver," Barry said, finally pulling away. "Sorry about, uh, everything."_ _

__Oliver raised his hand. "Don't be. This wasn't your fault." Barry attempted to argue but Oliver waved him off. "We are going to go into the bedroom and watch TV until you fall asleep."_ _

__"Uh..." There was the whole words thing, but Barry wasn't sure he was ready to get in a bed with Oliver in any context._ _

__"It's a king, and there isn't a pull out bed in the world that's comfortable. Trust me on that."_ _

__They went into the bedroom and sat on opposite sides of the bed. Barry's worries concerns were muffled by memory foam and silk sheets - the bed was the stuff dreams were made of. Barry wished he could've slept on it on a night that he wasn't incredibly likely to have nightmares. He'd worn comfortable clothes to the hotel, not entirely sure what to expect from this visit. For pajamas, they would do._ _

__Unfortunately the first channel the tv turned to was playing the local news, which was reporting a story about a police officer that had been injured in a freak car accident that might've had something to do with the mysterious "Flash". Barry's guilt burned anew and he wanted to curl up inside of himself, but Oliver changed the channel quickly. Some channel was running a marathon of wildlife documentaries, and Barry couldn't complain too much about science._ _

__There was one question Barry wanted to ask, but he wasn't about to ask Oliver's permission to ask it (because the answer would be no, presumably). "Why are you doing this, Oliver?"_ _

__"Because there aren't a lot of people in this world that know what you're going through, even amongst your friends. Knowing what happened and dealing with what happened are very different things. You don't have to be alone to deal with this."_ _

__It was a very subtle shift in tone, but Barry noticed a hint of sadness in Oliver's voice. At the warehouse, Barry had taunted him about mistakes in anger without really thinking about what that meant. The Arrow operated under much more dangerous circumstances. The consequences of failure in that kind of situation could be much more dangerous too._ _

__It warmed Barry a little. "I'm not alone. Not now."_ _

__There was a hint of Oliver's smile again, but he said nothing._ _

__Barry shifted his attention to the documentary, doing his best to try and follow it without telling Oliver all kinds of facts. He felt a shift on the bed as Oliver pulled out some kind of laptop._ _

__Barry looked up from his pillow. "You should get some sleep."_ _

__"You first." Oliver said, glancing up from whatever he was reading on his laptop._ _

__There wasn't a lot Barry could say to that. He drifted off to the sound of the narrator explaining the behaviors of lion prides, and then nothing at all._ _

__***_ _

__He was defending his territory. It was _his_ city, full of his friends and family. He saw the way Iris looked at him, the words clear in his mind. "He's one of the three people I'm allowed to cheat on Eddie with. You usually don't meet people on your list, but there he is."_ _

__There Oliver is indeed, in his city stopping _his_ bad guys, as if Starling City is all well and good without him. Barry just wants him to go away with his stupid hood and his stupid weapon choices, his stupid trap crossbows and that insufferable personality of his. The way he just smiles or does something inane that makes Iris and Felicity melt like he's not some green menace to society, like he's not a murderer underneath it all._ _

__Oliver has him in a chokehold but this time, Barry's strong enough to free himself. He could just break Oliver's hand, the force needed to do it isn't a big deal to him, but instead Barry changes things up by running both of them backwards into the wall. Oliver cushions Barry's impact and Barry knocks the air out of Oliver's lungs. It's always good to share, right?_ _

__But Oliver, that asshole, he doesn't know when to give up. He kicks Barry forcefully in the back of the legs and tries to escape with one of his rope arrows. Barry lets him get up to the building at least. He's going to show him just how dangerous superspeed can be._ _

__The skyscraper is tall and he has to dodge one of those annoying flechettes._ _

__"Barry."_ _

__Oliver is already at the top of the building. How can he sound so close?_ _

__"Barry, you're having a nightmare."_ _

__Getting shot with arrows was definitely a nightmare, but he made it through that already. He runs faster and faster up the building, which never seems to end. He feels like he's slowing down, but Oliver has to be nearby._ _

__"Barry, wake up."_ _

__He's done listening to Oliver's bullshit, and the Flash throws his fist in the direction of the sound. Only his wrist is caught by a very warm - very _real_ \- hand determined not to let it do any harm._ _

__"Barry!"_ _

__Barry blinks his eyes open to see Oliver hovering over him, still holding him arm and ready to hold him down if it comes to that. It isn't the Oliver of his dream, annoying and invasive. This Oliver looks cautious and concerned, like the compassion from before never went away._ _

__"You with me, Barry?" he asks cautiously._ _

__Barry swallows a lump in his throat and nods. "I think I am, yeah." Oliver nods and lets go of Barry's arm._ _

__Barry buries his face in his hands. Even sleep can't keep this night from being over. Guilt is crawling up his throat, ready to remind him of just how badly Bivolo had messed him up. Barry peeks through his fingers and Oliver is still hovering, watching him thoughtfully._ _

__"Is this why you never talk about sleep?" Barry asks._ _

__"Something like that." Oliver says in that tone where he's trying to pretend like something isn't a big deal when it actually is._ _

__Barry remembers the road map of scars that marred Oliver's chest and he's pretty sure there are more that he hasn't seen. That didn't happen in a vacuum. The pain of Barry's mother's death burns within him every day - the screams, the chaos of his living room, the despair of not being able to save his father from going to prison, and so much more. There's no way that Oliver doesn't understand that pain, not with the shipwreck and the earthquake in Starling and the whole Deathstroke thing while Barry was in a coma. Barry doesn't dare ask about those things. Given some of what he's heard from Felicity and Dig, Oliver's not exactly forthcoming about it._ _

__Barry sits up. "So how do you deal with it? How do you beat the nightmares?"_ _

__Oliver sits back. "The nightmares don't stop, Barry. They change, but they don't go away. I only sleep when I need to."_ _

__"Eight hours, probably during the day given your line of work?" Barry asks, raising an eyebrow. He knows that's not the case. Oliver frowns at him._ _

__There's an awkward silence. They stare at each other, trying to see who will back down first. Barry is sure that Oliver could win a staring contest against graffiti on a wall, but he presses on regardless. "I don't think you'd be as effective as you are if you haven't had a full night of sleep since that ship went down. So what did you do?"_ _

__Oliver keeps him waiting. "Sara," he says finally. Barry's eyebrows must shoot all the way up his forehead given the look on Oliver's face. "Not like that. Not usually."_ _

__"Oh, okay. The safety of Starling City doesn't depend entirely on your sex life. Good to know!" Barry teased._ _

__Anyone else could've been offended by the comment but Oliver merely rolled his eyes and pressed on. "We shared a bed. We had enough similar experiences that just knowing the other was safe nearby was calming." He missed it._ _

__Barry nodded and paused to think for a while. Oliver didn't look willing to elaborate further, but what he'd said was enough. The logic was sound enough - if he could feel Oliver's warmth nearby, he'd know that he wasn't trying to throw him down the side of a building or some other horrible thing. And while he wasn't Sara, he still had superpowers. He was a hero._ _

__"What if we tried that? I mean, just the shared space thing and not the whole sex thing. That's not - I'm not doing that." He threw up his hands in an attempt to emphasize his point._ _

__Oliver looked at him like a cat trying to act bored. "But the shared space is okay, apparently."_ _

__Barry could feel himself blushing. He wondered just how much he could embarrass himself in a span of twenty-four hours, then hoped he hadn't just jinxed it. "It's worth a shot. I'm not Sara, but I've seen some pretty awful things myself." Oliver looked like he was about to interject, but Barry shook his head. "The thing about crime scenes, up to and including the one in my living room, is that criminals can do some pretty messed up things. I get paid to figure out how and why. So let's skip the lecture unless you want to compare stories, which I'm pretty sure you don't."_ _

__"Fair enough." Did Oliver look mildly impressed? Barry thought he looked mildly impressed._ _

__Oliver turned his bedside light out and the television off. His laptop has been abandoned on the nightstand, presumably as he was watching over Barry. They laid next to each other in the darkness, shoulder to shoulder. It was definitely awkward, but Barry wasn't about to complain._ _

__***_ _

__Barry snapped awake in the middle of the night. He had no idea how long he slept. He was rested, but still very drained from the night before. What surprised him, however, was the vigilante curled against him whose arm was splayed across his chest. Oliver's hand was spread out slightly to the left of his heart as if trying to shield it from something. From the look of it, he was out cold._ _

__Barry didn't want to move. For the first time that he'd ever seen, Oliver looked at peace. His face had a healthy color (unlike the last time Barry had seen him unconscious) and his sleep looked dreamless. There was no sign of the Arrow’s scowl or the dire seriousness Oliver carried with him all the time. This was just Ollie._ _

__If Oliver hadn't been sleeping on it, Barry would've wrapped his arm around him. He'd just have to deal with the pins and needles later. "You know, you're not so bad like this," Barry murmured. Oliver mumbled unintelligibly and turned his head. Barry smirked. "Still a jerk, though."_ _

__He could only stay awake for so long. It seemed as though his body was still working overtime to undo the damage Bivolo had wrought. But for a good night’s sleep? It was worth it - for both of them._ _


	5. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It begins.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's done! It's finally done! And just in time for Olivarry Week. I was going to save it for the free day, but I think it kinda fits today.
> 
> Shoutout to my bff Tracy and the Stream Team WA Division! Y'all have been a huge help and I'm so grateful that you've listened to all my babbling about this fic and ship. A special shoutout goes out to all of you readers who have stuck with me through this story. It has been really wonderful seeing the positive response to this fic and I couldn't have done it without you. Olivarry fandom is fantastic and it's been so great to see it grow over time.
> 
> Hope you enjoy!

The sad thing, when Barry thinks about it later, is that he knows Oliver is still awake. Barry lost a couple of hours to restless sleep and he's got an early shift at the precinct to look forward to. It has nothing to do with the time zone difference and everything to do with nightmares. He doesn't really think about calling so late. It's not going to matter.

Oliver answers after one ring. "It's late."

"For real? My clock must be all messed up," Barry says. There's a smile in his voice already in spite of his nightmares.

On the other side, he can hear Oliver setting some things down and wiping some sweat away. Barry hopes he isn't doing anything with his fractured arm. "Very funny. So, what's up?"

"Couldn't stay asleep and apparently-" Barry pauses. There is no way to say it without sounding weird.

"Apparently...?" There's that almost infuriating hint of sass in Oliver's voice that eases the tension. Barry doesn't want to let him dictate how awkward this conversation is.

"Apparently my snuggle buddy skipped town," he replies, and it's a miracle he doesn't laugh in doing so.

"You might want to invest in a teddy bear," Oliver says, sounding more than a little amused.

"Well, teddy bears do have a long history of not giving anyone stubble burn," Barry teases. "But they're a lot less conversational than you are, oddly enough."

"Is that what this is about?" There's an edge of seriousness in the midst of the amusement.

Barry rubs the back of his head. "Something like that. I'd head over there if it was okay with you."

"Malcolm Merlyn is keeping tabs on my sister's apartment. Coming here would expose your identity and put you in danger."

That was a conversation they needed to have elsewhere. "So uh, small talk then? Do you even do that?"

"I'm an ex-heir to a billionaire empire. Small talk is more of an art form."

"Really? Tell me about it."

***

That's how it starts. Barry falls asleep to thoughts of Oliver having backhanded conversations with awful people in his smug Arrow way. No more nightmares come that night but the next time they do, another hour long conversation with Oliver keeps them at bay. He has incredible stories to tell from before the shipwreck - there’s an unspoken rule that traumatic events are kept out of conversation, for both of their sakes - and could be quite the smartass. Barry talks quite a bit during their phone calls too. Oliver is a pretty good listener and sometimes he doesn’t even laugh when Barry sleepily rambles on about nerd stuff.

Soulmates or no, the late night chats are a pretty sweet deal.

***

It was Cisco's idea. That wasn't the best defense (for anything really), but Cisco had suggested it would be cool to go visit Starling City to get Felicity's sample in person. Caitlin had never been and Barry thought it would be fun to go on official Flash business. Flash and Arrow business. Flarrow business.

Okay, _that_ wasn't a thing. They weren't the Brangelina of superheroes or even the Bennifer 1.0. A case could be made for Bennifer 2.0 with the whole Daredevil/Elektra thing and wow, Barry didn't want to think about that anymore. They were just two people who had each other's words that both happened to be in the same incredibly secretive and dangerous line of work. They'd shared a bed that one time recently but in a totally platonic way. 

Right?

Barry decides he'll work the rest of his shift at the station. Being there makes him think of Joe, which makes him think of Iris, who was involved with him in a situation that was remarkably less weird than whatever this whole thing is with Oliver. 

When Barry tells Joe about the trip, Joe gives him the sternest, most dadlike look. "You need to be careful out there, Barry. Starling City is a whole different ball game from Central, even if you have super speed."

"I was there before and it wasn't too bad."

Joe does not believe him. It's probably a parent thing. Besides, Barry had never brought up _that_ particular adventure with the Arrow, at least in enough detail to make him worry. It was part of a surprisingly short list of things Barry never wanted to tell Joe ever.

The train brought Cisco and Caitlin to Starling City several hours before Barry would be able to leave. Barry figures they'll have a decent amount of time to get settled in, as Cisco wants to catalogue all of Oliver's "toys" so that he could improve them in every way. Barry doesn't expect that to go over well, but maybe Cisco's charm could prove irresistible. Not even Oliver could resist arrows that could immobilize people with high frequency sound waves. Or something like that - something cool.

The truth is that Barry's kinda hesitant to see Oliver. It's barely been more than a year since they met. Barry can't seem to find any kind of an answer for Oliver about their relationship or lack thereof, no matter how much he enjoys their new late night habit. He's spent so much of his life dreaming of a future with Iris where the words on his wrist were just a mildly embarrassing afterthought. She was with Eddie now but that could change, and he's willing to wait for that change. He's waited so long already.

Oliver is an enigma. A very prickly enigma with faults and the irritating habit of keeping important secrets to himself. Barry has only just begun to scratch the surface of who Oliver really was, and despite how much he likes Oliver he still isn't sure how a proverbial eternal bond between souls factors into all of that. So far Oliver has shown incredible faith in Barry, supporting him in his decision to fight super-powered criminals and stopping him from hulking out all over Central City and his personal life. Oliver gave him a chance at peaceful sleep. Barry saved his life (but he would have done that anyway) and made him a mask. There had to be more to it than that. Barry has no idea what that is.

Cisco calls with the news that Team Arrow's boomerang-throwing baddie is on the move. Oliver and Roy are on the way to an ARGUS facility to back up Dig and Lyla. They have a 600 mile head start, but Barry Allen has never been known for punctuality.

Barry arrives just in time to see two very lethal boomerangs headed straight for Oliver's chest. Catching them is so easy that Barry does a 360 for style before catching the second one. Not that it’s slow enough to see - but at least Oliver can't chide him for having fun on the job.

The adrenaline rush from his grand entrance is almost enough to calm his nerves. But the bad guy drops a smoke bomb and takes off in directions unknown, and Barry decides to abandon the top secret ARGUS facility for greener pastures.

***

Reckless. Just a week out from their first major training session, and Barry is still doing a poor job of being careful. Oliver is grateful for the save - okay, weapons being diverted in less time than he has to react is pretty great, but that doesn't excuse Barry from revealing his secret identity to Lyla. For all Barry knows, Lyla is another ARGUS agent who could expose him to Amanda Waller (Has he met her yet? Did Barry know just how dangerous ARGUS was?). But Lyla is the mother of Dig's child as well as Dig's soulmate and-

Okay, so there isn't a lot of reason outside from her ARGUS connection to distrust Lyla. But that's reason enough, and Barry is still being reckless. Reckless and helpful and maybe a little bit adorable.

Oliver can't quite explain the restlessness inside of him. His conversations with Barry over the past week are one thing, but having him in Starling City is something else. Danger lurks at every corner, even in his sister's apartment, with none of the underlying safeties Central City promised. The Flash has super powers, but Starling City is super dangerous.

That hadn't stopped Barry a year ago, when the Mirakuru threat was still new and relatively untested outside of Lian Yu. It isn't stopping him now with his super speedy analysis and sheer force of will. Barry Allen is worse than a drug - he's _infectious_ , especially with his rampant enthusiasm and the plague of freckles descending down his neck.

Even the Arrow can't resist agreeing to a team up outside of metahuman intervention. And if the Arrow can't resist those glittering green eyes or the electric grin on Barry's face, Oliver is well and truly doomed.

To say he is uncomfortable is an understatement.

***

Even with Barry's help, it's easy for Oliver to get into his groove. The dark underbelly of Starling City is somewhere he'd learned to thrive over the past two and a half years. Taking down goons is a piece of cake for the two of them.

Torture, on the other hand - after so many years of grooming and fighting the worst kinds of people the planet had to offer, torture isn't something Oliver thinks much about. It's traumatizing and then it's over, and if you're unlucky or stupid it'll happen again. Criminals in Starling City have a chance to tell the truth and a chance to change, but sometimes the only way to get the truth out of them is by force. Diggle understands it. Felicity doesn't, but she's seen enough to know when it's necessary.

Barry is horrified. The shock and disgust are plain on his face, even with the mask, and it makes Oliver feel exposed in a way he hasn't in ages. This isn't something that can be smoothed over with a late night chat or a training session. Distantly, Oliver can hear Amanda Waller's spectre in his ear, reminding him of those who deal only in extremes and how they must be dealt with. He can hear explosions and the screams of the dying, the innocent caught in the crossfire, a major city under a lethal pandemic like so many other horrors in his life, and yanking an arrow out of a terrified man's arm is as easy as breathing.

The ride home is quiet and tense. Barry is late to the foundry but for once, Oliver knows it's on purpose.

***

Lyla's earlier reassurance feels hollow to Oliver, now that his interrogation has led her to the hospital. Neither she nor Diggle would ever demand an apology for what happened - they've been in the business too long - but Oliver feels awful all the same. He should have recognized the trap.

Oliver doesn't usually spend much time dwelling on torture. He _could_ walk himself through the moral conundrums that Tommy chastised him about, but that would involve reflecting upon the torture he's endured as well as inflicted. Simplicity is easier - whoever controls the pain controls the situation.

Barry finally approaches, and for once Oliver isn't in a fighting mood.

It takes Barry longer to return to the foundry after getting things situated at the hospital. He comes back once for Dig, who is too worried about his wife to freak out about Barry's speed. It's not like Barry can go full speed with Diggle in tow anyhow - the people he usually carries aren't usually built like a fortress of muscle. He makes a super brief pitstop for food before finally returning for Oliver. 

There's no doubt in his mind that Oliver is in a mood, but Barry isn't sure which mood it might be. There's no one else there to yell at, no one to blame but themselves. The first time he'd seen Oliver fly off the handle about a situation he couldn't control had been more than enough.

But Oliver isn't pacing this time - he's eerily still, staring at some pile of wreckage that had been part of his home base. He says nothing until Barry gets close enough.

"This is all my fault." Oliver turns around and it's like he's a different person entirely. This isn't the Arrow, full of sharp edges and obstinance. This is a man who had done some truly awful things and was well aware of that fact. Even for Barry, who believes in Oliver, it's hard to reconcile the hero who fought to protect the city with the vigilante who struck first and dealt with the consequences later. Barry had never thought about what happened when "later" actually came. 

From there the floodgates finally open. Oliver isn’t hiding behind the Arrow’s arrogance anymore and Barry feels like he’s seeing Oliver for the first time.

Oliver knows just how easy it is for others like Joe and Wells to write him off as some nutjob with a bow. He has no problem with playing that card against others when he needs to, but he's far more susceptible to the notion than he lets others think. It isn't an armor so much as it is a house of cards - ready to tumble in a moment like this. Like the Undertaking. People could believe in the Arrow whether they liked him or not, but very few people believe in Oliver Queen. Oliver isn't one of them. 

But fighting like that, existing like that - it’s taking its toll and Oliver knows it. The guilt is destructive and Oliver thinks he’s sacrificing little pieces of himself to keep going. Barry doesn’t know what it takes to be able to torture someone like that, to kill like he knows Oliver has. But Barry has walked the halls of Iron Heights more times than he bothered to count. He’s looked into the eyes of men who had committed unspeakable acts without remorse. He’s passed them by to get to his father, a man who has killed no one at all but is haunted more by the loss of his wife rather than having been blamed for her murder. 

Guilt isn't something felt by monsters, and Oliver is no monster. His emotional health needs some work - and Barry can’t blame him for that, not if he’d gone through enough to make torture seem like a valid option. The Oliver Queen he’d first met was an asshole, the kind of jerk that would say the stupid phrase on Barry’s wrist and embarrass him in the middle of a serious investigation. But that Oliver Queen is also a loving friend, brother, and son. He fights for his city, his family, and his friends. No matter how tough of a front he put up, that love remained. 

Barry is reminded of the night he’d first run all the way to Starling City for a heart-to-heart. It hadn’t mattered that two people Barry cared about the most had shut him down about having powers or trying to use those powers to help people. Oliver had believed in him without hesitation, giving him the push that allowed him to become the Flash. 

It's time to return the favor.

For once Barry takes the reins and dishes out the truth. Oliver can be right about Barry’s lack of strategy or situational awareness, but Barry is right about the light in Oliver’s heart. That light may have withered down to a flicker in Oliver’s opinion, but maybe the heart of a hero needs a different hero to protect it.

And in that, Barry finds that he's more than happy to be that hero. Oliver had shuttered Barry’s darkness before, and now it's Barry’s turn to nurture the light.

***

Captain Boomerang is in the storage compartment, restrained and hidden away for the duration of their trip. Barry is restless on the plane, occasionally glancing out the window and complaining about the slowness. 

"You know I could run him out there about three times this fast. He might not even get wet."

Oliver shakes his head. "You don't know where it is, and the two of you will get killed before you ever find the ARGUS base."

"I'd be careful!" Barry muses.

"You'd be dead or injured before I had a chance to look for you. Lian Yu is full of traps and all kinds of things that can kill you."

"I'm way faster than a land mine."

"There are more than land mines. The kind of people who ended up here were usually the kind of people you didn't want nearby."

Barry raises an eyebrow, but doesn't complain. "Will you show me someday, when we're not so pressed for time?"

Oliver looks at the flight instruments, feeling a bit ashamed. "It's just an island. You saw Lost, right?"

"Yeah, but you weren't on Lost. You were on Lian Yu, and that changed you as a person. It's because you changed that we're in this together and I feel like I should learn about that. Somehow." He rubs the back of his neck. "It's not like all the important details are in the newspapers. Or... anywhere."

Oliver looks at him sternly. "There's a reason for that."

Barry sighs. "Yeah, but it's also pretty annoying that you can look up all the worst parts of my life in public record, but-"

"You're easily the cutest person to ever break into Iron Heights."

Barry groans and puts his head in his hands. "That was not why I got out of that one."

When he looks up, Oliver is taking off his watch. "Put this over your words. ARGUS is keeping Slade Wilson-"

"You mean Deathstroke?"

Oliver gives Barry an exasperated look. "You wanted to know about my past, and a part of it is in the facility we're going to. He doesn't need to know who or what you are." 

Barry took the watch, but hesitated. "Does that mean we're official?"

For a long moment, Oliver watches him and says nothing. His expression is unreadable, but Barry figures his own expression isn’t that far off. "It means you're the kind of person Slade would want to hunt down if he ever got out of there."

It isn’t a no.

***

Oliver and Barry wander off to wherever their dick-waving contest is going to be, which promts the remaining members of both teams to go about their business. Diggle is still with Lyla, Roy has gone upstairs to do his day job, which leaves Felicity, Caitlin, and Cisco to their own devices.

"Have at, Cisco," Felicity says. "I won't tell Oliver you were into his stuff if you won't, and neither will the security footage."

Cisco lights up like a child stepping into in Disney World. "All of it?"

"Anything you can reach, and I can send you the specs for anything else," Felicity replies with a smile. "The upgrades are much appreciated, even if Oliver doesn't say so."

"Believe me, that is never a problem," Cisco says, standing above a rack of arrows with his tablet and stylus in hand.

Felicity turns to Caitlin. "Can you take a look at something for me, since you're here? It doesn't have anything to do with the Canary murder, but it's definitely up your alley."

"Of course!" Caitlin replies cheerfully.

Felicity reaches over to one of the computers near Caitlin and types in a few things. "Now right here is the x-ray of Oliver's arm that you took after he fought with Barry," she says, pointing to a picture on the left. "We took an x-ray the day after we got back, because Oliver sometimes does this thing where he's injured but he'll just walk it off to fight crime."

"Tis but a flesh wound!" Cisco mutters, scribbling something arrowy on his tablet.

Caitlin laughs and so does Felicity. "Definitely been there. Not a huge fan of being there actually, so we tried arguing and taking this x-ray to prove a point. But for once in his life, he was actually _right_." Another x-ray appeared on the screen next to the first.

Caitlin furrows her brow. "There's no sign of the fracture anywhere."

Felicity leans forward with a stylus pen, pointing to some spots in the first x-ray. "Get this - these have been there for a while. Probably before he started being the Arrow." She leaves it at that, since she’s not about to get into what on earth he was doing on that island. She points to the second x-ray. "Not only is the fracture healed up, so are some injuries that never healed correctly in the first place."

Caitlin has no idea what to say. Normal humans can't heal like that. Even some metahumans couldn't. "Do you have any other records of his vitals that I could compare?"

A few more commands and Felicity pulls up a veritable database of medical history from the past two and a half years - anything they could have measured with instruments and figured out on their own. "It's not much, but it's what we could come up with between Oliver's weird knowhow, Dig's experience on the battlefield, and the internet. And let me just say that it is _really_ hard to try and learn anything medical from the internet."

She shows Caitlin a few keyboard shortcuts to help her quickly navigate through all the information (because "Using a mouse is what Barry feels like now when he comes here by rail."). The initial scan from after Oliver's return is helpful, but there’s a wide gap of information for several months after that.

"Sorry about that, once I got in on this I told Oliver he needed to bring his operation out of the Stone Age."

"That's what we're here for," Cisco muses, sitting above an array of deconstructed explosives.

"Seriously, I can just send you the schematics for those," Felicity says, looking at him warily. “Best wifi anywhere. Like that.” She snaps her fingers.

"It's easy to put back together." Cisco has the shell of something in his hand. "It helps, but sometimes it's a lot easier to understand something by touching it. Better vibes that way."

Caitlin, in the meantime, is more focused on the mystery before her. Oliver's medical files are in clusters, usually centered around significant incidents. Each file had someone's initials, typically Diggle's or Felicity's. And just a year ago, right before a date that was forever burned in Caitlin's mind, were a few files tagged BA.

She froze. Not because of the date (this time), but because it hadn't occurred to her before. Normal humans can't heal injuries like that - but Barry can. Barry can heal from a fractured arm much more quickly than two days. That still left the question of how he could have transferred that healing to Oliver. The day after had been saved for goodbyes, but nothing had seemed too terribly off.

She grabs her phone and pulls up Iris's blog. Caitlin isn't exactly a fan of it, especially of the Flash's late night visits to his top blogger, but it was nevertheless the public hub of Flash news. The entry about his attack on Eddie was a platitude, devoid of Iris's usual enthusiasm about the Flash and clearly distancing herself from the situation. A lot of comments were questioning why the Flash would have done something like that or why there was so little information to go on. Amid the chatter was a solitary thread about another sighting - a red streak climbing up the side of a hotel on Main.

The same hotel, according to recent texts, that Felicity had mentioned she, Diggle, and Oliver had been staying at during their trip.

Caitlin gasps. "Jackie!" As soon as it slips from her lips, she covers her mouth in embarrassment. Oops.

"Jackie? Jackie who?" Felicity asks, confused.

Cisco perks up. "Jackie like that one person Barry keeps talking to you about when Wells is out of earshot?"

Caitlin almost chides him about listening in on their conversations, but realizes that would only make things worse. She'll have to let Barry know to be more careful when bringing up that particular issue. If Oliver is Jackie, it certainly makes a lot of sense that secretive Barry is about identity.

"I have to investigate this a little more!" she says, steeling herself. "It's a lot more complicated than I expected." There’s an awkward beat, but she quickly fills it with "Let's go see Starling City before we head out, okay?"

It isn't a great excuse, but it works well enough. They leave the Arrow cave soon after, but Caitlin can hardly concentrate on the sights of Starling.

Oliver Queen is Jackie. Oliver is Barry's soulmate and the bond between soulmates hold significant implications when superpowers were involved. Caitlin had gathered what little scientific data on soulmates she could find, but there was no telling the true extent of how a bond could affect metahumans and their partners. If Oliver can borrow Barry's healing ability, what other aspects of Barry's power does he have access to?

***

Barry doesn’t know what he expected from the offer to see who was strongest in a warehouse, but he can’t complain about the results. Oliver has clearly taken their previous fight to heart and for someone so slow, he gives Barry a hell of a challenge. Barry figures he’s run a few miles in this one building already, zipping around and trying to avoid Oliver’s arrows as he tries a different approach. It’s difficult, but it’s so much fun.

Taunts and teases fly through the air but none of them stick. The thrill of the fight burns through both of them, both too stubborn to back down, but nothing is at stake here. In this empty building they’re both free to be themselves. As tight as Oliver’s defense is, Barry catches a loose smile and an easy laugh as he passes by. The Arrow’s guard holds but Oliver’s is down, and he looks happier and more vibrant than Barry’s ever seen him before.

It eventually proves to be a little _too_ distracting. Barry takes a wrong turn while attempting to dodge a blow and crashes into Oliver outright. There’s a stunned silence as they hit the floor, followed by an outbreak of laughter.

“You might have seen the stories around,” Barry muses as he sits up, “but sometimes they call me the Crash.”

Oliver laughs again, his breath still a little heavy from fighting so hard. It’s the most delightful sound. The brilliance of his smile is a far cry from the dark and brooding Oliver he spoke to before. Barry can’t help but beam at him in return, even as he’s extending a hand to help Oliver sit up.

Though Oliver is upright, neither of them let go. The laughter fades into quiet as they try to gauge each other. Inch by inch the distance between them closes - an irresistible gravitational pull. Barry glances at Oliver’s lips, so incredibly close that he can touch them with his own, but before Barry can decide whether he wants to try it Oliver has made the first move. He’s slow and cautious, but his lips are soft and welcoming despite his edgy exterior. Barry meets him with more curiosity than anything - Becky Cooper never kissed him with such interest. Oliver is a beautiful paradox, aggressive and sweet at once. Barry feels warm and safe here, despite the all the fighting they had just done.

He can’t help but chuckle. Oliver pulls away, confused.

“Barry?”

Barry smiles bashfully. “I just… I never expected _this_. You.”

Oliver raises his eyebrows but says nothing.

Barry recognizes the hesitance, that hint of vulnerability, and it just makes him smile all the more. “I like you Oliver, more than I ever really thought I would. I’d like to give us a shot.”

Not even the Arrow can keep the smile from spreading across Oliver’s face. He certainly tries to stay serious, but Barry can see that there’s still warmth there all the same. “I’d like that, Barry.” His smile cracks, settling into a familiar frown. “We’re so close to finding out who murdered Sara. Before I can do anything, I need to see that through.”

It hurts a little, but Barry understands that need for closure. He’s lived with it for over a decade. “I can wait,” he says. “I’m not exactly great at keeping time.”

Oliver offers a knowing smile. “You’re pretty good at waiting.”

“Really? What was that about always rushing in?” Barry says with a grin.

“You know what I meant.” Barry does, and it saddens him. It must be clear on his face, because Oliver leans forward and kisses him on his forehead. “Just so we’re clear, I like you too.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So now they know! And knowing is half the battle, right? 
> 
> ;)
> 
> You can find me on tumblr [here](http://sigmundite.tumblr.com/).

**Author's Note:**

> Don't worry! Things will be alright. Now that Arrow season 2 is (mostly) dealt with, the rest of the fic should take us through to the crossover episodes and then the fun really starts.


End file.
